The surgical removal of the crystalline lens of the eye due to a cataract condition or other defect, leaves the eye without the capacity to function unless some form of substitute lens is provided. Eyeglasses can be made to serve the purpose, but the correction required is so great that the lenses are thick and heavy. In addition, due to the magnitude of the correction, the lens provides very little side vision. Moreover, if only one eye is aphakic, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to match the vision of the aphakic eye to that of the normal eye with an external lens. Prosthetic crystalline lenses have been inserted surgically and employed with limited success, but they involve the risks of additional surgery as well as the possibility of rejection, and if only one eye is aphakic, matching the prosthetic lens with the normal lens is a serious problem. As a result, the preferred practice is to employ a contact lens to the transparent epithelium covering the cornea of the eye. Suitable contact lenses are small and light and can readily be interchanged for matching to a normal lens. Peripheral vision is no problem with the contact lens because the lens covers the eye aperture and also follows the eye's movement. Once the patient becomes used to the contact lens, it is highly satisfactory. The main problems of the contact lens for the aphakic eye patient have to do with the application and removal of the contact lens. Contact lenses are small, and hard enough to see even with good vision, but the difficulty is compounded for the aphakic eye patient, especially when both eyes are aphakic. Guiding a finger on which a contact lens is balanced to the correct place on the eye is quite difficult with no visual direction, particularly for the more elderly. Another serious problem is finding a lens which may have slipped off the finger and fallen.
The present invention is directed to the solution of these problems of the aphakic eye patient who wishes to use contact lenses. More particularly, an object is to provide the aphakic eye patient with means by which he can see with his aphakic eye without any external transparent lens. Still more particularly an object is to provide such a means for use by the aphakic eye patient while applying or removing a contact lens.